The Chronicles of Echo Team
by Ultrace
Summary: Newly recreated Echo team on their first mission. Teen for mild, mild cursing. There may be some grouped-up words because my space bar fails. Feel free to criticize.
1. The Assignment

"Sir! We've just left UNSC space!" Echo Two said, announcing what was already obvious.

"Echo Two, you need to loosen up a little. Just because it's protocol doesn't mean that you have to point out what we already know," Echo Five said.

"And you, Echo Five, need to learn how to speak when spoken to. May I remind you that I outrank you?" Echo Two chided.

"Hey, I'm just giving some friendly advice, so if you'd kindly-"

"Will you both just shut up? We're out of the clear zone and I need to focus. Just a few more hours an we'll be at the asteroid belt," Echo One pointed out, frustrated with his new team. He'd known them all for years, but this was his first mission since gaining command of a full squad. He didn't want his men's mindless bickering to distract him.

They'd been traveling through space in their corvette for two weeks now. It was small, with just a few cots, and manned entirely by their all-Spartan team. Their mission was to destroy a covenant base that had sprung up on an asteroid far too close to UNSC space for comfort. The job was simple. Run and Gun they'd called it back before deployment. Get into the base, blow it sky-high, then get out. Still, they didn't have much information on how many covenant troops would be there, or how to blow it up.

Echo One's crew started readying their gear (or in Echo Five's case, polishing his sniper rifle), checking their fuel supplies, stocking up on ammo, and looking over their armors. Although it took a good hour and a half to check all the equipment, there was plenty of time left for waiting.

Whereas most of Echo squad was cool and collected, Echo One was nervous. This mission could end up badly if only because of the lack of confirmed information on the targeted base, he thought. And he definitely didn't want to screw up on his first mission. He also cared about his soldiers, and didn't want them to die painful deaths in an area where their bodies wouldn't even make it back to base.

Echo Two was annoyed at Echo Five, but kept driving. Even though he wanted to brain Echo Five for being so disrespectful, that would've been out of protocol. Echo Two believed in the military laws and protocols. He knew that laws kept order, and order kept peace, and peace kept happiness. So he followed it down to the dot. He knew that if they just followed their orders, they would successfully complete the mission without any losses.

Echo Three did what he always did when Echo Two and Echo Five started arguing like children. In the two short weeks that he'd come to know everyone but Echo One ,who was someone he'd met way before he'd been inducted into this squad, he'd learned to ignore them.

Echo Four chuckled inside his helmet. He knew that trying to stop these arguments would result in him getting yelled at by Echo Two, which was always annoying. Although he didn't really like Echo Two, he understood his reasons behind being so strict. Something about order breeding peace. Echo Five was cool sometimes, but he could be really annoying sometimes, too. So Echo Four settled to staying out of the arguments.

Echo Five laid back down on his cot, happy to have finished his argument with Echo Two. He always found it funny to listen to the guy yell at him for ridiculous reasons.

If only Echo Two would relax a little, then maybe Echo Five would be a little happier with his squad. Echo Two just ruined all his hard-earned fun, Echo Five thought.

Echo Six stayed silent throughout this exchange, and stared out the window thinking about this mission they were on. He was wondering about how this squad would fit together during any mission if they were at such odds. To him, it wasn't about protocol, or relaxing. It was about teamwork to Echo Six.

Echo Seven sighed in her helmet. Sometimes these guys could be so stupid. She wished she didn't have to listen to these annoying conversations. Sure, she got along with all her squad mates. In their own ways, they were all good, nice people.

If they didn't have to work together in such close quarters, maybe there wouldn't be so much friction between them, but hey? What can you do? She thought to herself.

The last few hours of the flight passed without incident. There were no more arguments, no faulty equipment, and no problems. As the asteroid's gravity started pull down on the nose of the corvette, Echo Two started to adjust the Corvette's angling to pull off a smooth landing. Everyone stood in silence as the corvette slowly pulled down to the asteroid, waiting for the exit ramp to extend to the ground so they could get out and finish the mission.

"This is Spartan Ben-A246, calling in to report that Echo Team has arrived at the destination," Echo One said while the exit ramp slithered down to the surface of the asteroid.

"Thank you Spartan A246, we are now going let you talk to your new tactical support, who will give you your mission's details," replied ONI Headquarters.

Echo One waited a few seconds for his radio to connect with the newest member of his team, and got ready to introduce himself.

"This is Spartan Ben-A246 spe-"

"I already know who you are, Ben. Do you really think command would've assigned me to a new team without giving me any background information? By the way, I'm Rachel Goldman, you new ONI tactical support. Pleased to meet you," said Rachel.

"Pleased to meet you to, Ms. Goldman. Now, I'm assuming you have our orders for the rest of this mission?" Echo One said, in a formal tone.

"Yup. They're very simple. 'We need Echo Team To go into this covenant base and demolish it by any means necessary. It would preferable if you could steal some information along the way,'" Rachel said in a mocking tone, "Or at least, that's what they told me."

"So, are we allowed to go in now?" Echo One asked.

"that base needs to be gone by the end of the week. You can start the operation whenever you like, as long as it stays within that time frame," Rachel said.

Echo One switched off his radio, and announced to his squad,

"Alright Echo Team. I've received our orders. We need to get in and demolish that base by any means necessary before the week's end. When do you guys want to go?" Echo One said.

"I'm bored as hell right now. Can we go right now? We're already prepared for the mission anyway." Echo Five said.

Echo Four said, " I have to agree with Echo Five. I'm really bored right now."

Echo Two said, "I hate to agree with Echo Five, but we're already prepared and we should get it done early."

"Now or never," Echo Seven said.

"Alright, that's majority. We're going out now," Echo One declared.

Everyone walked out of the corvette, ready for action. Crouching in craters and hiding in shadows to avoid detection, they slowly made their way to the covenant base. After about fifteen minutes of sneaking across the asteroid, they came across the first covenant patrol.

The group was made of an elite, leading four grunts, with two jackals bringing up the rear.

Echo Five said, "Sir, we've got some fresh meat out there. Want me to take care of them?"

"Sure, Echo Five. Just put on your silencer and make sure they don't notice us. We want to stay unknown as long as possible." Echo One ordered.

Echo Five took aim with his SRS99 AM sniper rifle, aiming to take out the elite first. As a bullet flew through the unsuspecting elite's eye, Echo Five had already taken aim on one of the jackals. He scoped into the purple spray coming from the elites face, and shot where he saw the jackals form shifting around. As the form of the jackal hit the ground with a thud, his head bleeding all over the ground, Echo Five grinned, and shot the other jackal in the chest. As the second jackal fell, the grunts realized what was happening, and started to run around screaming at the top of their lungs. Echo Five took one more shot, both grunts running into the bullet. The first grunt fell to the ground bleeding from his abdomen, while the second grunt ran for awhile longer after having his methane supply tank shot off. The other two grunts were both shot in the head, adding their bright blue blood to the increasingly colorful puddle around them.

Echo Five walked back to his team nonchalantly, grinning at how successful his sniping had been. In less than fifteen seconds, he'd killed eight people, without a single missed shot. Sometimes, he loved his job.

"It's over. Those poor soldiers are down for the count," Echo Five said over his radio.

"Good job, Echo Five. I'm glad I have such a good sniper on my team," Echo One replied.

The team kept on toward the base, staying silent. Although they did not, or maybe because they did not, find any more patrols, the team was anxious. Usually a base of this size would have a larger cover force. Either this base wasn't very important, which was unlikely as it was so close to UNSC space, or it's soldiers were otherwise occupied. Afterabout another thirty minutes of walking, the covenant base was in view. Echo One decided that it would be best to stay undercover in a nearby crater and observe the base for some time before rushing into it and getting killed.

As the team settled down into comfortable positions inside their crater, they zoomed in on the base with their visors, looking for something interesting. They all knew they'd be there awhile, a few hours at least, so they started searching intently for anyway to blow up the facilities inside the base, or at least for some soldiers.

"I find it unnerving at how few soldiers are at a base this size," Echo One said.

"Well, sir, I guess that's why were watching it. We need some explanations on this op. We've just got such little Intel from HQ, " Echo Two said.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see, Echo Two. Now lets get back to our scouting," Echo One said, ending the conversation.


	2. The Explosion

The Explosion

It was a few hours before anything actually happened. And when something actually did happen, it was a disappointment. Echo Three simply saw a grunt on patrol, all alone. He figured it was just a grunt made to alert the base to an intruder's presence, rather than actually fight the intruder head on. It was harmless.

"Echo One, sir, we have a lone grunt on patrol. Permission to take it out with my magnum?" Echo Three requested.

"Sure Echo Three, just make sure he dies on the first shot, we don't want anyone to know we're here," Echo One said.

Echo Three pulled his magnum out from his holster, and shot the grunt in the head. It went down quickly, and more importantly, it went down silently.

"Alright team, I think we can go in now. I can't see any reason we shouldn't be able to, and I'm really bored. I hate hours of observation like these," Echo One said, ready for action.

Echo Five pulled out his sub-machine gun saying, "Oh, hell yeah! I need to get out of this damn hole."

"Echo Five, shut up. We know you enjoy spreading misery with your guns, but if you keep yelling that loud, they'll know we're here," Echo Seven said, mocking him.

"Seriously, Echo Five, keep it down," Echo Four commented.

"Alright guys, are your weapons ready? Cuz mine are, and I feel like killing something, too. And Echo Five? Stop yelling please," Echo Two said.

"ready to go in guys?" Echo One asked.

"Yeah, we are," replied Echo Six.

"good," Echo One said, "let's go."

The team crept out of the crater they were hiding in, and slowly moved toward the base. They got up to the outside wall, and backed up against it. Echo Seven, who was closest to the entrance, looked into the building. Seeing nothing that was a potential threat, she nodded her head to her team.

Everyone moved silently through the base, completely alert. Although nothing had been seen besides the patrolling grunt, anything could be around the corner. After going through a few of the base's hallways, the team encountered their first enemy inside the base. A Jackal was dozing next to a door in a seemingly empty hallway.

Echo One motioned for Echo Six to assassinate the jackal. Echo six crept up to the jackal, and stabbed it in the neck. It fell over onto it's side, down for the count. Echo Six nodded to Echo One to show that it was dead. Suddenly, something curled around his neck and yanked him into the air. Seeing the slight outline of an elite choking Echo Six, Echo Two whipped out his DMR and shot it where it's head seemed to be. As Echo Six was dropped onto the floor, there was a blue flash and an elite stumbled backwards, his shields down. Echo Six rolled over onto his back, pulled out his magnum, and emptied his clip into the elite's face. It's rag doll body slumped against the wall, and Echo Six stood up, cleaning his visor of the purple blood all over it.

Echo One said, "Well, there goes a completely good covert operation. Let's ready our weapons for when the next round of aliens come around to beat us to death."

The team went on through the base, trying to keep silent even though their cover was probably blown already. Echo One took the lead, trying to make sure his team was as cautious as possible. Sticking to the Purple, blue and pink walls that stretched on forever, Echo One crept forward. After a few more monotonous minutes of creeping through the hallways, The came across an intersection in the path.

"Guys, judging by the curve of the building's outside wall, I think this is where the center of the building should be if the building is as big as it seems. Let's turn left." Echo Four said, doing various calculations in his head, "And it makes sense that the building's power generators should be in the center. If we rig up some explosives to the generators, we should be able to make a large explosion."

"Figured that out in your head? Impressive. I'll trust you on this one, then," Echo One said.

Echo One motioned for everyone to follow his lead. He turned the corner slowly, shotgun at ready.

There was a shout, as Echo One flew backwards down the hallway, hitting the ground five meters away. His Mark VI MJOLNIR armor taking a lot of the impact.

"Damn it!" He shouted, "It's two hunters! Just my luck!"

He got up, bruised from his flight, then turned around to see an elite. He shot his shotgun on reflex, sending it sprawling on the floor, dead. He'd rigged his shotgun to make sure it would kill anything up close except for brutes and hunters. Turning around, he pulled out his DMR to shoot the hunter. He made sure to keep far away from the hunters.

"C'mon, this is just stupid. They put their hugest infantry in a small hallway. I'm surprised they were able to hit you in such close quarters, Echo One," Echo Four said. He walked nonchalantly over to the dead elite's body. He picked up one of it's plasma grenades and primed it. Before the grenade's plasma gas was able to adhere to his SPI armor, he chucked it at the face of the hunter closest to him. He then picked up the elite's other two grenades and repeated the process.

After three plasma grenades, one of the hunters was almost down. Parts of it's body were falling off while it struggled to stay alive. Echo Six Shot it with his MA5K carbine assault rifle until it spread it's guts all over the floor. After he knew it was dead, he turned to the second hunter. He pulled out his M41 SSR MAV/AW rocket launcher, and watched as it's bullet spiraled toward the hunter. Everyone dived for cover to make sure they didn't burn up at such close range to a missile. The missile hit the hunter at barely 15 meters away, pulling him to the ground instantly.

"Echo Six, was that really necessary? I mean, seriously? We could've been hurt by that at such close range," Echo One said.

"Personally, I thought that was pretty cool," Echo Two said.

"What happened to protocol and all that stuff?" Echo Five asked of Echo Two.

"I like explosions, Echo Five," Echo Two said.

"Maybe there's some hope for you left!" Echo Five exclaimed.

"Alright guys, we've taken out the hunters. Obviously, we suck at keeping our existence a secret, so all the troops in here are coming to kill us. Let's get into the generator room, lock the doors, and blast a hole out through the ceiling so we can get out without any problems. Deal?" Echo One said.

"Sounds good to me!" Echo Five said, reloading his DMR. He had just shot a grunt dead that had come around the corner to kill them.

Everyone ran to the room as quick as possible, and sealed the doors shut with some covenant fuel crates. So if the covenant were to try and open the doors with force, they would explode. Echo Six started setting explosives on the generator while Echo Three and Echo Seven stood guard by the doors, being the only Spartan twos in the group. Echo Five, Echo Four, and Echo Two stood by waiting for orders.

"Echo Four, since were in here and you have nothing to do, I want you to steal some of their information from their computer." Echo One commanded, pointing to a covenant computer. From this computer, they could steal some information on covenant plans and tactics.

"Yes, sir!" Echo Four replied, getting right to his task, "Man, this is pretty easy to crack. I'm surprised."

Echo Six set a timer on the generators explosives to explode in twenty minutes. Hearing the covenant banging on the door., he pulled out his rocket launcher.

"Echo Four, we're leaving stop downloading now so we can get out of here before the place explodes," Echo One said.

Echo Four pulled out of the computer, while Echo Six shot the ceiling with his rocket launcher. He shot the roof again, and reloaded his rocket launcher. He saw the ceiling was started to crumble, and shot it one more time. It caved.

The team climbed onto a covenant supply crate, then onto one of the power generators, and onto the roof. They sprinted across the rooftop, eager to get away. As they were running, they heard the covenant troops set off the explosives they had barred the door with, slowing them down for sure. The got to the end of the building after about six or seven minutes, and jumped ten feet down to the surface of the asteroid. A combination of armor endurance and momentum preservation techniques allowed them to keep running without losing any speed.

"Four minutes 'till the clock hits zero!" Echo Six Shouted into his mike.

Everyone ran faster, trying to get as far away as possible. After a few more minutes of sprinting through the endless grey landscape, the corvette finally came into sight. Finally seeing their small green ship after the sprinting as hard as possible away from certain death relieved the team more than anything else could. As everyone had just settled into the ship, an explosion rocked the asteroid, shaking the ship.

"Echo Six, you practically blew up their side of the asteroid with those explosives. How powerful did you make em'?" Echo Seven asked.

"I made the explosives powerful. I had to make sure the place blew sky-high," Echo Six said.

Echo Two started up the corvette, and pulling away saw how much destruction the explosion had caused.

"Daaaamn! That's base has been obliterated, along with most of our explosives. You couldn't have saved any explosives for me?" Echo two said in awe.

Through the window, Echo One looked upon the ball of crimson flames that now consumed what was left of the covenant base.

"I'd say this mission was successful." He said proudly.


End file.
